Yesterday we ran through our picks to break through at a low-ish level in 2008, the bands whose work will bubble from under to tickle the fancy of many more over the next year, but will probably not attract too many wandering attentions from the mainstream. Here, we’re upping the commercial ante: these acts, we reckon, are in with a shout of crossing over – brighter tomorrows, bolder ambitions, bigger budgets. Maybe, just maybe. Next-Steppers we are calling them.

The Twilight Sad
Of the FatCat label’s two Scottish acts to properly emerge in 2007, Glasgowish-based four-piece The Twilight Sad trumped their tourmates Frightened Rabbit in the impression-leaving stakes, albeit primarily through volume over everything else. Certainly attendees at their live outings will have rocked home to the tune of stinging hiss in their eardrums, but delve that little bit deeper into their acclaimed debut album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (ranked in DiS’s top 50 albums of 2007, link) and you’ll discover deep-embedded delights that make themselves known only once those layers of noise have been stripped back. Broad of accent vocals convey the truest emotion, and when the band hit their stride live they’re among the greatest acts in the country. A second LP is, as we understand it, due for release this year; if it arrives in time, expect the Mercury judges to be bending ears its way. They tour in March. MDDiS interviewMySpace

These New PuritansThe only of ‘our’ bands you’d be proud of in Brooklyn, These New Puritans, TNPS, are already there in mind and spirit, channelling Gang Gang at the dark edges of Telepathe’s “dance riot”. Contrary and commendably hard to pin, the Southend quartet read from a palimpsest of apparently ridiculous influences; but redeem themselves by lagging in the distance between renaissance numerologist John Dee and J Dilla; global flooding as art and This Heat. Take a love of loop and rhythm and imagine four autistic teens, bored of yawning lessons, imagining the perfect band… TNPS have reached towards that only fleetingly so far, and it remains to be seen if its members stay interested enough for the act to ever really flower. But that, of course, is the exciting part. Debut album Beat Pyramid arrives this month. KKMySpace
Photo: Dean Chalkey

Laura MarlingTipping Laura Marling feels like blowing cover, so boorish the clamour's become for chart-bound decoys Adele and Duffy. You suspect, though, that Marling has built cladding tough enough with the release of two fine EPs, and an album's on the way in the first week of February. With a sound and a modest folk-vision that's at once more evolved and alluring than those of shoehorned contemporaries, expect more privileged hordes to be drawn in by the secretive, whispering cut of Marling's jib in 2008. KKDiScover featureMySpace

Glass CandySoaring high on red synths above some anonymous city, Italo-disco duo Glass Candy stare impassively down into the shimmering mess; languorously conjuring smitten couples with flying, laced arrows. No cupid though, this is just lust; snatching ‘80s Madonna while she sleeps, scaring her into restraint, and dropping her down into that anonymous city to do battle with local clublands. Yeah. Glass Candy are probably the most exploitable entity residing on Mike Simonetti’s Italians Do It Better label. Both are going to be ridiculously huge this year. Ed Banger big, at least. Thank god they, and Chromatics, and Invisible Conga People, are so very excellent. A feature’s forthcoming, and catch them live at ATP vs Pitchfork in May. KKMySpace

Errors
Sounding not unlike post-rock larvae that just recently sprouted magnificent, acid-hued wings, Errors are busting out at the seams with crossover potential. Fresh from landing mega support slots with Underworld with virtually nil experience in hand, the Glaswegian troupe's as-yet-untitled debut, due sometime this year (yes, we're that specific), promises to appeal to chin-strokers and booty-shakers alike with a winning mix of glitch-ridden angst and strident bangers. Still confused? Think an instrumental LCD, Q And Not U, and possibly some other letters as well. ADDiS featureMySpace

No Age
Take two LA underworld art-scene skate punks, mix a large tablespoon of blessed-out ambient psychedelia, bake for ten minutes in an electric oven pre-heated with melody before cutting with the serrated edge of the no-wave knife, and you may have something that as perfect as the American noise pop of No Age. Emerging from the same downtown LA noise scene as The Mae Shi, Mika Miko and HEALTH, the band’s debut album Weirdo Rippers, released last year, presented a fresh take on experimental music, managing in the process to rub legendary record label Sub Pop into enough of a sweaty stupor to brandish its chequebook. Said label will release their follow-up effort, due this year. Disaffected, fresh and exciting; one thing you can be certain of is that No Age will continue to follow their own artful DIY trajectory throughout 2008 until the mainstream attempt to claim it for themselves. TMDiScover featureMySpace

Yeasayer
With a wave of industry support growing behind them, Brooklyn four-piece Yeasayer look set to storm 2008 with their wholly unique twist on what the allegedly informed are categorising as ‘world’ music; the way we hear ‘em, though, Yeasayer won’t be playing WOMAD any time soon. Echoes of retro-pop acts ghost through their fretless bass lines, but this is very modern stuff; that, or it’s so without referential frame that it exists purely out of time. The band’s debut album All Hour Cymbals is to receive something of a push in the early part of 2008, to promote the band’s DiS-sponsored UK tour in March (dates here; tickets on sale now), and it’s entirely conceivable that it could be a word-of-mouth grower like Mirrored was in 2007. Already on the radar though they are, in 2008 Yeasayer seem set to become A Much Bigger Deal. MDDiScover featureMySpace

Los Campesinos!For Los Campesinos! 2007 was one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sort of years. Barely months into their conception, word of mouth and that there internet saw them attain cult status based on a handful of self-recorded tracks, most notably the indie dancefloor heaven in a box of ‘You! Me! Dancing!’. Having seen the full light-of day release, that song, supplemented by a number of other singles marked a 12-month period whereby they embarked on a steady diet of sold-out tours in the UK and Europe as well as stopping over in Canada for the summer to record their debut album. Hold On Now, Youngster is all you could hope for as the vanguard of the new-old indie revolution. Mixing wry observations that reference everything from Live Journal to All Tomorrow’s Parties and a hotchpot of helter skelter sounds, it’s the perfect balance of sweetness and skronk. If they can continue their breathless trajectory, then 2008 is undoubtedly theirs for the taking. GDDiS featureMySpace

Friendly Fires
There’s something about the simultaneous love and contempt for art and pop in this country which means there’s always going to be one of these bands bubbling under, ready to erupt, regardless of whether the hype comes their way or not. It's rare but it happens when the kind of kids who gorge themselves on the best the world has to offer. St Albans' Friendly Fires are thee band you’ll be dancing to this summer, be it at some warehouse party, in front of one of Glastonbury’s big stages or in some pub where the jukebox’s copies of both The Kooks and The Rapture are worn out. There’s just something, and it's something truly special, about this band’s blending of soaring dance and gliding M83-ish shoegaze, that dips its hand as much in the pocket of the Kompakt/DFA end of the spectrum as it does fall in thrall of the throb of Candi Staton, Talking Heads and the ADD-dance-pop of Fat Boy Slim and The Chemical Brothers. For a generation that has grazed on 8-bit console soundtracks, been in awe of Daft Punk and LCD and lost control to hits from digi-laden soundtracks like Trainspotting and The Matrix, it seems – especially with Klaxons, Bloc Party et al kicking the door in - only a matter of time before p-funk as fresh and insanely catchy as this washes up on the beaches of the mainstream. When this tidal wave hits all those kids sick of another Liberscene band, moaning about life in Leicester, will throw down their Carlings and start throwing technicolor shapes beneath the disco lights. Friendly fires: most likely to be the band encouraging the use of cowbells and synths at every house party this summer. SADiscover featureMySpace